This invention relates generally to mounting brackets for TV monitors and more particularly to a universal assembly for mounting commonly available 13" TV monitors from a ceiling. A number of different mounting methods are known for mounting a TV monitor for viewing by hospital patients while lying in bed. These known mounting methods typically involve wall or ceiling mounted movable arms or gimbal arrangements for supporting the TV monitor in a position such that the screen is generally vertical. However, TV monitors supported in that way are difficult, if not impossible, to view from a completely supine position. It is advantageous to permit dental patients, obstetrics/gynecology patients, podiatric patients, and patients in traction, for example, to view a TV monitor for entertainment or other purposes from the completely supine position in which these patients typically find themselves. However, in order for persons in a supine position to easily view a TV monitor, it is best positioned above them such that the screen is horizontal. Some ceiling mounting brackets for TV monitors are known in the prior art. However, they are disadvantageous in that they variously require that mounting holes be drilled in the enclosure of the TV monitor; they do not hold the TV monitor in the desired position, and they do not permit easy installation and removal of the TV monitor.
Accordingly, it is a principal object of the present invention to provide a ceiling mount for commonly available TV monitors that does not require any modification of the monitor, that retains the monitor in a position such that its screen is horizontal, and that also permits quick and easy installation and removal of the monitor without requiring that mounting holes be drilled in the monitor or that it be modified in any other way.
These and other incidental objects are accomplished in accordance with the illustrated preferred embodiments of the present invention by providing a ceiling mount assembly that includes a pair of support members that are mounted to adjacent ceiling joists, a fixed U-shaped frame member dependent from the pair of support members in which two corners of a TV monitor are cradled, and a dependent U-shaped bail member hingedly attached to the pair of support members and adapted to be retained within a slot in the front surface of most commercially available 13" TV monitors. A pair of J-hook rods are connected between the fixed U-shaped frame member and the U-shaped bail member to improve the rigidity of the assembly.